New Gym Feature Adds Pokémon to Pokedex

As reported by several players on reddit, you are now able to “obtain” a Pokemon entry in Pokedex when you face him in the gym. In other words, if you fight a Pokemon that you haven’t caught, your Pokedex will register it as seen!

UpdateNiantic confirmed this is the desired behaviour on their Twitter account: “Trainers, did you know that Pokémon can now be discovered by viewing Gyms? New Pokémon are logged in your Pokédex!”

Gym Battles can now update Pokedex and more

The community seems divided on this discovery, as some claim it is unfair to register a Pokemon as seen if you fight it, and others claim differently. A reddit user even wrote he does not see this as bug:

Upon gym entry, it will automatically register in your Pokedex. I think this new feature (I don’t think that this is a bug) makes a whole lotta sense. We can certainly see Mons in gyms, so they should practically register in the Dex as “seen.”

Interestingly enough, this started happening a few hours ago, with no indication from Niantic and no game update in either of the App Stores.

Here’s a quick rundown of details we have:

When viewing or fighting a Gym, any Pokemon that you encounter will be registered as Seen

It’ll only add 1 Seen to your Pokedex if you haven’t seen one in the wild yet

It is happening since today, so any previous interaction with Gyms doesn’t count

It will add region exclusives as “Seen” in your Pokedex also

The best community comment on the new bug/feature, no matter how you call it:

“Came here to say his as it literally just happened to me. It’s sickening, I still have no Pikachu seen/caught but now have a Raichu seen as there’s one in a gym near me.

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